St. Mary's Ryken softball falls to O'Connell

Last Thursday afternoon when the St. Mary’s Ryken High School softball team welcomed reigning Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion Bishop O’Connell for its lone league meeting this spring, the clash of previously unbeaten squads hinged on the efforts of two stellar pitchers and basically the results of two of their pitches.

St. Mary’s Ryken (13-1) junior hurler Emmaleigh Zagrodnichek and O’Connell junior ace Bri Lencz had battled through two scoreless innings before the outcome would hinge on one swing of the bat in the top of the third. With the bases loaded and two outs, Lencz helped her own cause by smacking an 0-2 pitch over the fence in right field for a grand slam that propelled the visitors to a 4-0 lead.

O’Connell (14-0) would later add three more runs in the top of the seventh when catcher Ari Clark belted a Zagrodnichek pitch over the fence in left for a three-run homer that accounted for the final scoring. Lencz, who had fanned eight Knights batters in the first three innings, blanked the hosts on one hit, a single by Natalie Nichols in the fourth, while fanning nine.

“I thought my curve and my change were working pretty good today,” said Lencz, who has already verbally committed to George Mason University, coincidentally site of the WCAC Softball Championship game later this month. “Ari does a great job behind the plate for me. She [Zagrodnichek] tried to come inside on me in my first at-bat, then she worked me away [in the third inning] then tried to come inside on me again and I was able to turn on it.”

Zagrodnichek took the loss while allowing seven runs, six earned, on six hits, three walks and one hit batter while fanning seven. In essence her fate was sealed by two pitches, one that Lencz sent over the right field fence in the third and the other than Clark belted to left. She also walked two batters in the third, both of whom scored on Lencz’s grand slam.

“Emma has been doing a great job for us all season,” the Knights’ coach D.J. Lewis said. “I’m not disappointed with the outcome at all. It was probably something that we needed. We just have to find a way to score some runs. We started to put the ball in play the last four innings. We know we’ll probably see them again” in the WCAC championship.

O’Connell will likely head into the WCAC tournament as the top seed and St. Mary’s Ryken should be the second seed, meaning the two teams would not face one another again until the WCAC final at George Mason. In a slightly different format this spring, the higher seeds will host playoff games through the WCAC semifinals with the lone neutral site game being played at George Mason.